Communications

Inside Money - Industries - Communications

December 22, 2000

COMPANY ACQUIRES WEB SITE

TheStreet.com, a struggling stock market commentary site, said Thursday it would acquire an online financial newsletter site, SmartPortfolio.com Inc., and buy back $10 million of its own stock. Financial terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed. SmartPortfolio, a 2-year-old company based in Lakeland, has five employees and about 10,000 paid subscriptions to its newsletters. TheStreet.com said the acquisition of SmartPortfolio.com would help the company develop its newsletter business, which is expected to be producing more than a dozen paid and free e-mail offerings by this spring.

MICROSOFT BUYS COMPANY

Business software maker Great Plains Software, after an up-and-down year that included the first layoffs in its 19-year history, is being acquired by Microsoft for $1.1 billion in stock. Microsoft officials said the acquisition of Great Plains would allow it to offer more efficient software for small and medium businesses. Under the acquisition, Great Plains, which is based in Fargo, N.D., will become a division of Microsoft, while chairman and chief executive Doug Burgum will become a senior vice president of Microsoft. Great Plains has about 2,000 workers worldwide. In June, the company laid off 170 workers.

VODAFONE BUYS EIRCELL UNIT

Vodafone Group PLC, the world's largest mobile phone company, is buying the Eircell wireless unit from Eircom of Ireland for about $4.1 billion in stock. Eircell has an estimated 60 percent market share in the Republic of Ireland with more than 1.2 million subscribers. "Eircell complements Vodafone's existing presence in Northern Ireland and enhances its European footprint," Julian Horn-Smith, chief executive of Vodafone Europe said.